Your Brain Is Lying To You—And It’s Costing You Breakthroughs BY SUSAN ROBERTSON “You must fly the plane.” That’s the 2025 AICC Chairman’s theme — and it’s exactly what leadership feels like right now. You’ve got
These aren’t facts. They’re filters — installed by past ex- perience, running quietly in the background. We don’t no- tice them because they feel like truth. But the real problem is that we stop questioning them. The Curse of Knowledge makes it harder to see new solutions, new paths, and new ways to solve the new chal- lenges you’re facing. And in a business like yours — where capital investments are big, timelines are long, and the market is in motion — that can cost you dearly. There’s a different way to lead through uncertainty. And it starts with possibility thinking. Possibility thinkers don’t assume that the first roadblock is the end of the road. They’re willing to look again. To question what seems fixed. To ask, “What else could be true?” This isn’t wishful thinking. It’s disciplined curiosity. And in industries that are balancing new tech, gener- ational transitions, and growing complexity — curiosity is one of the most underutilized competitive advantages available. Here are three practical ways to break out of the Curse of Knowledge and shift from “obstacle” to “opportunity:” 1. Assumption Smashing. Most of what limits your think- ing isn’t a real rule. It’s a made-up one. It’s created by your brain based on all your past experience and expertise. People absorb assumptions from their own history: what’s worked, what hasn’t, what got praised, what got shut down. But just because something was true once
priorities, pressures, and people counting on you. You’re watching your market, your margins, your team. You’re flying through turbu- lence, and the instruments keep changing. But what if the biggest threat to your trajectory isn’t external? What if it’s how your own experience
shapes what you can no longer see? The Curse of Knowledge is a cognitive bias that hap- pens when we become so familiar with something that we stop examining it. Once we “know” something, our brains tag it as settled. We make it part of the mental autopilot. That’s helpful for getting through a busy day. But it’s dangerous in an environment that demands change. Here’s how it shows up: • “That’s how we’ve always done it.” • “We already tried that.” • “Our customers wouldn’t go for it.” Susan Robertson
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April 28, 2025
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